Rough footage from the upcoming The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct fails to impress.

Terminal Reality's, first-person take on Robert Kirkman's inescapable zombie epic, The Walking Dead, is in an odd position. As a first-person, zombie-themed shooter based on a very popular license, it should be rolling in hype. But Telltale's much-praised take on the series, with its nuanced characters and genuinely difficult ethical choices, casts a long shadow, and that seems to be reflected in the video's comments.

Most of the criticism is leveled at the game's graphics. While players tolerated, and even praised, the comic book affectations of Telltale's version, it seems they're less keen on flat, brightly colored textures when they're seen up close and in the first-person. The rough animation and painfully obvious screen-tearing doesn't help. The music, which sounds like someone trying to play the 28 Days Later theme from memory (though I'm told the same track did appear in the original TV series) ramps up as our intrepid hero is chased and seemingly overwhelmed by jogging zombies. There's a sedate, exploratory feel to the first minute of footage that hopefully makes it into the final game.

So what do we know about the game? Not much. Its full title is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, it's set before the TV series and it's due to arrive on 360, PS3 and PC sometime in 2013. Players will take on the role of grumpy hunter and soon-to-be-reformed redneck, Daryl Dixon. Daryl's charming, white-supremacist brother, Merle, will also be making an appearance. Developer, Terminal Reality, is known mostly for its silly vampire-vs-Nazis shooter, Blood Rayne.

Update: As Ben Kuchera points out, this is not promotional footage. It's a fan edit thrown together from pre-release materials.

this is what warz should have looked like... also, why do we need to go with characters that are already in the tv show, its not like the tv show will stick to that story if they see fit to add some peace of back story to the tv show.

I read the title and thought "Ooh first person Walking Dead sequel." then watched the video to find plastic hair sterile environments and rather dull, unexciting gameplay and animations. It should be an alpha build, or they should just kinda scrap it. It doesn't seem to be getting much positive hype.

I'm open to it being good. Not expecting it. Can it hope to meet the highs of telltale's effort? No. Probably not. This is a dark knight rises/the hobbit situation here. Telltale blew it out of the water, now anything with the walking dead name on it's gonna have to struggle to match up, let alone surpass it.

Of course though, they should try their hardest. Just like the two movies mentioned. We'll just have to wait and see whether they did, I'm personally hoping this footage is uncomplete, merely released to remind people this project still existed.

I think some cautious optimism is in order. Very cautious. The gameplay looks pretty dull, like Left 4 Dead except little variety and you can just walk around most of the action, however there could be more interesting stuff as a minute and a half doesn't exactly showcase much. Regardless, if Telltale's game showed us anything it's that despite simplistic gameplay a good story can make a game. Though if I had to guess I'd say this will probably suck and at best won't come close to living up to the last game...but to be fair there aren't a good proportion of games that do. At any rate we've still got the next season of the Telltale Walking Dead game to look forward to...hopefully they'll pull off another hit.

I can deal with the graphics - I'd expect there to be a bit of a downgrade to handle a horde. But what I think is the worst decision here is to use one of the TV show's characters. I think that is a bad call, a really bad one. The most important part of the TV show is the interpersonal interactions, and using an already established character will give almost predictable reactions - or reactions that make you go "this isn't so-and-so".

Looks like a XBLA title. Not something I would ever pay full price for. And this is advertising? It wasn't a leak or something? I could definitely see Acti pulling the plug if it doesn't shape up soon.

I dunno, as much as I want this game to succeed, as a ZombiU style zombie survival horror game that gets a multiplatform release, this trailer just doesn't sell me. Now graphics never have really been an issue for me, except for a case like this, where the game is scheduled to release this year, and the animations and overall quality of textures and such just doesn't seem completely finished yet. I'm hoping the game is released later rather than sooner, or at least delayed to make the appropriate adjustments.

Hopefully we'll see a much more polished and well-made trailer within the next month or two though, as they probably shouldn't have released a trailer with such little information and obviously unfinished assets; just doesn't seem like good PR.

With the success of the other Walking Dead game, i'm really hoping the owners of the brand don't shrug off this game in favor of that one, as good as it may have been. Even if this game is good, but not great, it will still be miles better than seeing the licence get "tainted" with a cash-in FPS game.

You know a few years ago I would prolly be excited about this but after the flood of zombie game now out on the market other than its name brand title this game looks like it could be a zombie mod or mode from several shooters already out.

Looks rather bland even for it's genre. Do you just keep on running into the same copy and pasted zombies? What unique game-play mechanics does the game feature? The game looks graphically polished but it highly lacks atmosphere and uniqueness.

Rocket, if you're listening, for the love of god just release the stand alone before any more cash and grabs come onto the market.

Doesn't look that bad, the character models and animation look a bit... jaunty... but that looks like a WIP to me. The only thing I could complain about is the fact that he seems to holding a shotgun with a tiny pair of hands growing out of his nose, like they do in L4D2.

I think people are complaining because it's not brown enough for their liking. Despite what you might see in some titles, the outside world doesn't actually look like one of those old-tyme videograms.

The graphics don't seem that bad to me, although they are not amazing. The screen tearing and the seemingly uninspired combat is more of an issue for me. I want to play a zombie survivor game where you literally cannot be bitten or scratched or else you fail.

The animations also seem a little rough. Personally I'd just like GTA: Zombies. A nice huge city full of the undead, where you have to survive, scavenge and basically do what you like. Along with the option of doing quests such as saving people, finding medicine for an ill survivor etc.

SupahGamuh:This doesn't look good at all... especially following in the wake of Telltale's magnum opus.

Though I believe Telltale's game was overhyped (of course, it IS a great game, I've played it and loved it), this fps game looks very weak indeed, and in my opinion, it looks bad even if you don't compare it with Telltale's game. If this game doesn't deliver something special, it'll be regarded as a Dead Island/Left 4 dead copycat...

This looks disappointing, it's even worse because it is coming after the Telltale game so people are expecting greatness which I'm pretty sure this game can't deliver. Hopefully they realise this and overhaul it while they still have a chance.